


ANBU

by Maldoror_Chant



Category: Naruto
Genre: ANBU - Freeform, Gen, Unfinished wip, mentions of torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-24 23:05:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13821366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maldoror_Chant/pseuds/Maldoror_Chant
Summary: A kunai had been slammed into the door's cheap wood, cracking the veneer. From the blade piercing its large strap, a mask swung back and forth with a faint scratching noise as it brushed the door. It was white with two orange streaks in the stylised shape of a dog. The mask of an ANBU.They'd given him their answer. He was in.





	1. Ant

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline: Originally written during the time Sasuke was with Orochimaru, though the timeline is situated after his eventual return to Konoha. Obviously complete canon divergent from before the timeskip.
> 
> The second of my unfinished Naruto works. This can be read as is, there's no cliffhanger and can even be considered finished, albeit a fic that doesn't go much of anywhere. This WAS meant to be a multi-chapter epic with eventually Sakura, Gaara and a whole bunch of violence and some Sasuke/Naruto, and my inspiration just went Pfft after chapter 3. That's the way it goes sometimes (let it not be said I have not used this as a learning experience; since this fic I have never posted anything that was not 90% finished and completely finishable, since unfinished work pokes me with red-hot senbon.)

Sasuke waited. 

Nothing moved in the dingy, little room, except for an ant crawling across the cracked linoleum of the kitchenette, dragging a big crumb towards some unseen hole. 

Maybe there was something more he could have said, something more he could have done to persuade them...Not joining up with Orochimaru would have been a good start to that last list. That had come up during his interview. Repeatedly. 'Interview'...more of an interrogation, and Sasuke had been at Ibiki's less than tender mercies when he'd returned to Konoha last year, he knew what he was talking about.

Sasuke had stopped second-guessing himself hours ago. The chances had been slim from the start. At this point, he expected nothing. He waited.

The minutes ticked by, timed to his pulse, the only watch he needed. He'd been sitting on the small bed, back to the wall, arms on his knees, while the last six hours dragged by like the ant crawling across the kitchen floor, overwhelmed by the size of its environment and its task.

Something struck the door, a hard, sharp blow.

Sasuke was off the bed in an instant, fingers slamming together to form the Tiger seal, a habit he'd picked up in the last few years. But the door didn't burst open, there was no attack. He'd heard no footsteps in the hallway outside, felt no sense of presence.

It had to be them. It had to be their answer.

Sasuke walked towards the door without hesitation. It swung open with a creak and a hard pull; the wood warped on all but the driest of days. 

There was nobody in the hallway of course.

A kunai had been slammed into the door's cheap wood, cracking the veneer. From the blade piercing its large strap, a mask swung back and forth with a faint scratching noise as it brushed the door. It was white with two orange streaks in the stylised shape of a dog. The mask of an ANBU.

Sasuke lifted it up gently away from the wood, stopping its pendulum motion. 

They'd given him their answer. 

He was in.


	2. Metal Dogs

Sasuke woke abruptly and with the feeling that something was wrong.

He didn't move or even tense. His eyes drifted opened a fraction. Hidden by his lashes, the Sharingan flickered into motion.

The blinds on the one window into the room had been broken for weeks, permanently closed with a few slats snapped near the top. A finger of weak sunshine poked through the gap, invading the apartment. Motes of dust danced in the shaft of light as if they had been recently disturbed. 

Sasuke looked around slowly and discreetly without moving a muscle. The mask he'd found pinned to his door last night was lying on the kitchen table, undisturbed. The door was closed and the alarm tag he'd stuck across the jamb was still in place.

There was no sense of presence...yet Sasuke felt somebody had been here just a few seconds before, and might still be here now. When you'd lived in Hidden Sound for nearly three years, you became hyper sensitive to stuff like that.

He pretended to wake up for the benefit of anyone watching, his hands empty of weapons as he faked a stretch. He didn't keep any blades near the bed. He didn't need them.

The room was the same as it had been when he'd gone to sleep last night, except for one addition. A chest, four feet by two, near Sasuke's small closet. It had all sorts of interesting seals on it. Burnt into the top was the loose open spiral of the ANBU.

They sure did like their little surprises and effects, didn't they? He wondered who'd been the operative to sneak into his room and drop off a chest while he slept. Sasuke hoped that person was on his team.

There was a small scroll placed on the lid. Sasuke padded over to the chest, picked up the scroll and scanned it quickly. Then he reread it more carefully, since it contained instructions on how to open the chest, and the consequences of getting it wrong would be unpleasant. 

He placed his hand on the correct seal, waited three seconds, sent a small wave of chakra into the symbols and waited some more. He examined the seals curiously while he counted. He’d picked up quite a bit of information on seals in the past few years. If he were correct, these ones would adapt the chest to his handprint and chakra pattern. It would allow him to open it quickly the next time he had to, and fry anybody else who tried. 

Finally there was a click and he felt a quiver under his fingers as the lid sprung open a fraction. On the lid, the symbols faded into the wood until there was only the faint trace of their presence in the flicker of his Sharingan.

Inside was what he expected: a uniform, a spare mask, several changes of clothes - speaking of clothes, how was he going to wash the bloodstains out? He didn't think the ANBU would appreciate him wandering over to the local laundromat with this stuff. It was either going to be a lot of work at the sink, or he'd have to spend his first ANBU salary on a washing machine. Too bad he couldn’t access his family’s residence or money.

He put the clothes back and examined the armor. Good craftsmanship, flexible but tough. Multi-layered to stop kunai, with a steel mesh inside to slow down a glancing sword blow. And speaking of swords...Sasuke lifted out the blade he found at the bottom of the box and drew it from the scabbard. Not a bad weapon, but nothing exceptional. 

The scroll had also given him a time and a place for his induction into the ANBU. The coordinates were out in the middle of the woods. It wouldn't take him too long to get there, and it was three hours until the appointment. But if he left now, he could practice running in the uniform; it would take some time to get used to the unacustomed weight of a sword on his back and a mask on his face.

He grabbed a quick bite and put on the uniform, then examined the mask once again. It was light, made of metal, carefully built so that it would resist blows to the face. It had an inbuilt inner filter over the nose and mouth, providing some protection from poison gases. He was going to have to get used to breathing through that. 

Sasuke ended up in front of the small, cracked mirror over the dresser. He'd hung a coat over it the very first day, but he removed it now.

The sixteen-year old who stared back at him was looking more like Itachi every day. Sasuke had stopped caring about that at some point during his stay in Sound. Yet one more lesson Orochimaru had taught him. When you have a goal, you don't burden yourself with non-essentials. You keep only the steel in your soul that's needed to strike down anything that stands in your path.

Sasuke slowly fitted the mask over the face that watched him in the mirror.

The steel dog now stared back at him.

 

\---

 

There was somebody in the clearing when he arrived, ten minutes early for the appointment. Sasuke jumped down from the tree and approached the other openly. Presumably this was one of his new teammates.

Male, around Sasuke's age from his build. The young man was wearing the stylized face of a hawk with two orange slashes similar to Sasuke's. He was leaning against a tree with his head tilted forward and his arms crossed over his chest. Sasuke had the feeling the other had been following his approach for awhile now.

They nodded at each other, and Sasuke dropped into a crouch on a fallen tree trunk nearby.

He examined the other discreetly. He wasn't sure if they would ever be introduced or not. Sasuke didn't know that much about the ANBU's inner workings, nobody did. He knew, because he'd been told during the interview, that he'd have to obey his squad leader to the letter. That he'd have to kill without compunction at his village's command. That he could tell no one what he was doing. That there would be a trial period before he was confirmed an ANBU and would receive the tattoo. He wasn't sure what other rules there were, but he had the feeling there were quite a lot and he'd be running into them soon.

...Something about this guy felt familiar. Sasuke hadn't mingled with anybody from the village since he'd come back, apart from some high-level ANBU and Jounin and those charming sessions with Ibiki. But this feeling of familiarity predated all that. 

He was taller than Sasuke by a couple of inches; good build on the lanky side. His hair was blacker even than Sasuke's. It was clear of the mask, pulled back and falling to his shoulders where he'd tied it into a short braid that could be slipped into his collar if need be, to avoid giving an enemy something to grab onto. 

His uniform was identical to Sasuke's, but for one exception. His long gloves went up to the forearm, but they stopped at the wrist, and he wore no wrist-guards. His fingers were long, strong yet still looked delicate. There were bandages wrapped around his knuckles to give him some minimal protection, but it didn't look like he ever expected to throw a punch. 

A name floated up from Sasuke's past. Hyuga Neji.

Interesting.

Neji - Sasuke was almost sure it was him – hadn’t bothered giving Sasuke more than a glance, which would probably be enough for him to guess the Uchiha scion’s identity. Despite Sasuke’s best efforts, the bloody hair just didn't settle down, and the ties of the mask forced it up even more into its usual crest. He wondered if the squad leader would make him cut it. He hoped not. If it didn't stick out like it did, it would make him look even more like Itachi. Non-essentials be damned, he didn't particularly want to see a copy of his brother's face every time he brushed his teeth.

Sasuke wasn't sure what they said about him in the village, among those Shinobi who even knew he'd returned. It probably wasn't good. If it bothered Neji to be on his team, there was no indication from the other's stance.

The silence stretched, uncaring, between the two as they waited.

And waited.

Sasuke frowned beneath the mask and glanced at the sun, barely visible through the forest canopy.

"They're late," his companion confirmed as if Sasuke had mentioned the time out loud. The voice was deeper than he remembered, a bit blurred by the mask, but the tone of uncaring calm was exactly the same. Definitely Neji.

Sasuke said nothing. It was getting on to thirty minutes after the rendezvous time. He might have thought he'd made a mistake on the coordinates, but Neji was here too.

"This doesn't surprise me from our third new member," Neji commented enigmatically. "But I'm rather puzzled that our cell leader chose this of all days to be..."

He trailed off, probably struck by the exact same thought as Sasuke.

They stared at each other for a few seconds. Waiting for the other to speculate first.

"Yo. Sorry I'm late."

Neji glanced up in the direction of the new arrival, but Sasuke didn't turn around, merely closed his eyes briefly.

Why did it have to be him? The squad commander had to be a high-level Jounin with experience, certainly, but why him?

This is bad, Sasuke thought, remembering the last time he'd seen Hatake Kakashi.

No, the steel in Sasuke’s soul corrected him coldly. This is good. He can teach me a lot. This is exactly what I needed.

He stepped away from the tree trunk and turned to face his one-time mentor. Despite expecting it intellectually, he still felt a little startled at seeing Kakashi, because the man looked at once so familiar, with his bushy grey-white hair and his relaxed stance, and also so alien, with the ANBU mask and uniform. And without those books he always used to read- what was the name again? Paradise something. Maybe he'd finally outgrown them. Yeah, like that would happen. This man took 'weird' to a whole new level, and Sasuke had never figured out how much was camouflage and how much was, well, just plain weird.

He wore a dog mask too, Sasuke noted with surprise. Their masks were sufficiently different to distinguish them. Kakashi's had a few more orange and black streaks on his. There was something about the patina of the metal that spoke of previous service. 

Kakashi, hands in his pockets, had glanced over the two ANBU and was now looking around the clearing.

"He's not here," Neji supplied.

"Oh," Kakashi said vaguely. 

So the fourth member of the cell was also a guy. Good. Offhand, Sasuke couldn't recall any young female in Leaf who could keep pace with this team, the way it was shaping up. 

"May I ask a question?" he asked, not sure what the formalities were.

"That's pretty much what we're here for," Kakashi answered, his gaze wandering back from the clearing towards Sasuke. "This is your induction into the ANBU."

Sasuke glanced briefly at the man he was supposing was Neji. If Kakashi answered his question, it would confirm the other’s identity, and Sasuke wondered if this was allowed. The thought didn’t stop him. 

"Why do we have two Sharingan and the Byakugan on the same team? That's redundant. Shouldn't these abilities be spread out among several groups?"

There was a slight condescending mutter of 'Redundant?' from Neji, who apparently didn't consider the Sharingan to be on the same level as his own talent. Sasuke vaguely recalled some inter-family politics between the two related clans, the Hyuga and the Uchiha, which, even before he'd gone over to Orochimaru, had left Sasuke utterly indifferent.

"ANBU cells are flexible," Kakashi answered. "We might eventually get solo tasks, or be individually borrowed by other teams. But when we work together...let's just say, this team has a purpose."

A purpose? A purpose that would require two extremely high-level blood limit abilities? The two top rookies of their respective years and Copy-Nin Kakashi as well? Sounded hard. Sounded dangerous. Sounded exactly what Sasuke had signed up for.

"So who's our last member?" Sasuke asked, then waved aside the mistake in the question. No names. That was another rule they'd given him. "I mean, what ability does he have?" What ability could slot into what was already gathered here?

Kakashi's dog-faced mask had turned towards the north. Sasuke realized someone was coming. Very fast, and not as discreetly as he and Kakashi had shown up. Not crashing through the forest exactly, but with speed rather than stealth as primary concern. Considering he was over half an hour late, that was no wonder.

There was a rustle of branches, a short fall of leaves, and their last member landed near them in a crouch.

"Sorry I'm late!"

The silence in the clearing was so complete, you could hear the last few leaves touch the ground in a circle around the late arrival.

The fourth ANBU straightened up and adjusted his mask self-consciously.

"Our last member," Kakashi finally said, his voice a bit weak, "has the ability to always come up with surprises. Na- you there. What the hell are you wearing?"

Sasuke resisted the urge to tear off his mask and pound his head against the nearest tree. Kakashi's presence in his team could be explained. But who in their right mind would make Naruto an ANBU?!

Naruto's uniform was the same as theirs; it was the mask that was causing some confusion. It wasn't an animal mask, and from the looks of it, it was made of papier-mâché instead of metal. It was one of those festival masks, with googly eyes and a mouth that twisted upwards into a goofy grimace. His yellow mop stuck out behind the thing at all sorts of angles. 

"What happened to the mask you were supplied with?" Kakashi asked slowly. He sounded ready for just about any kind of answer, like most people who'd known Naruto a long time.

"Didn't fit. This works. It hides my face and it's white and all," Naruto said abruptly as if he didn't see what the problem was.

This was weird even by Naruto's usual standards, and if Sasuke wasn't feeling so off-kilter, he'd have wondered exactly what was behind it, but at this point he was just trying to get back onto firm ground.

Naruto didn't belong in the ANBU. The very idea was ludicrous. What the hell was Tsunade thinking?

"Right..." Sasuke thought Kakashi sounded just a bit off balance as well, but the Jounin recovered his usual laid-back aplomb pretty quickly. "Gather around."

Neji shoved himself away from his tree and approached Kakashi who'd unslung his pack and was rooting around it. Naruto walked over as well, his shoulders still rigid as if expecting further negative comments. He didn't glance in Sasuke's direction, but he drew level with him, about three feet apart. 

They hadn't seen each other in almost a year, and for three years before that, and then the parting had hardly been pleasant. Sasuke couldn't begin to imagine what Naruto was thinking. The air between them was almost solid with unanswered questions and tension.

This is bad, Sasuke thought. This is a distraction I do not need. 

"Okay, let's get this started," Kakashi said, straightening up. He held out three ribbons of different colors, orange, blue and green. "First, I need you guys to wear these on your person for twenty four hours or more. Give them back to me next time we meet."

That announcement got the same kind of reception as Naruto's mask.

"Please tell me this is for your mutts, and not because you want to put bows around our necks?" Naruto finally said, taking the orange band reluctantly.

Mutts? Oh, right. Kakashi's dogs. Scent marking. Sasuke picked out the blue one with resignation. It'd be a way of finding a scattered team, he supposed.

"Next," Kakashi continued without answering Naruto's question. The Jounin sounded pretty cheerful, at odds with the cold mask on his face. "Your codenames. You're Hawk-" pointing at Neji. "Orange Hawk for other teams, to distinguish you from anybody else with a similar animal mask."

“The names are always based on the masks?” Naruto interrupted, and there was something strange in his voice, something tight and controlled. 

“Yes,” Kakashi answered. He didn’t ask Naruto about his mask again.

Naruto put his hands behind his head, body relaxing. "And how are you and Sa- and this other dog-faced guy gonna manage?" he asked, voice loud. "We can't both call you Dog."

"Easy," Kakashi said lazily. "For you bunch of rookies, I’m going to be Big Dog. And you can call him Puppy."

Maybe Kakashi's still a bit cross with me after all this time, Sasuke mused ironically to himself.

Naruto burst out laughing.

"And you're Joker," Kakashi concluded.

Naruto's laughter ended in indignant protests which Kakashi ignored.

"We'll be training for a few days, up until our first mission," Kakashi announced brightly with a wide gesture at the woods around them. "That's when we'll see if this team's a go or not. If we are, you get your tattoo and your final commission. Until then, if you want to get reassigned to a new team or quit the ANBU altogether, it's your right."

Change teams...? Sasuke wasn't going to take the chance the ANBU might change their mind about him if he got picky; besides, it was to his advantage to team up with a Sharingan-user of Kakashi's calibre. Neji he didn't care about one way or another. But he found his gaze trailing towards Naruto...

"What kind of training?" Neji asked quietly.

"Ah, I'm glad you asked," Kakashi answered. His hand flickered and reappeared with something familiar dangling from his fingers. "I have here two bells."

"You have to be bloody kidding me," Naruto said.

"Yes. I am."

The three young men froze.

Kakashi's voice had gone beyond cold. It sounded like it had come directly from the metal mask. His fist slowly closed on the bells. A press of fingers and two twisted pieces of metal fell to the forest floor.

"You have accepted to become ANBU. If a Shinobi is a tool for his village, then you are now its weapons. We're a cell. We have to know each other's fighting styles and habits in and out, so that we can compensate for our weaknesses and be more than the sum of our parts. But when it comes down to the line, duty will be more important than teamwork. The mission takes priority over your teammates. Each of us has to learn to fight alone."

Sasuke blinked and turned to stare at Naruto. Naruto had had the same reaction, and the stupid mask was staring right back at Sasuke. It was such an automatic reflex, as if they were still kids in Team 7 who couldn't quite believe what their sensei had just said. 

They both looked away almost immediately. They weren't kids, this wasn't Team 7, there was a lot of not-so-pretty history between them. But that instant had happened, and Sasuke felt it like a crack in the metal of his soul. He shouldn't be teaming with Naruto. 

"That's a change of tune," Naruto finally said, throwing out what Sasuke was thinking. Did Neji know Kakashi well enough to realize what a departure from character this was?

"Yes, it is." Kakashi's voice still sounded distant. "But it's the way we operate in the ANBU. The mission cannot fail. If one falls, the others carry on. We use our teammates for strength, but we do not rely on them, and we do not return for them if they fall. Only make sure the body disappears. I suggest you think about this during our training together. Once the missions start, you'll have to live and die by it."

Silence.

Four years ago, Kakashi's words about teamwork had been an imposition on Sasuke. Acknowledging the need for others was an imposition. Now, Kakashi's words were exactly what Sasuke believed and what he wanted to hear. This was what he'd joined the ANBU for. 

But far in the back of his mind, a twelve-year-old who'd despised Kakashi the first time around was still mildly shocked. 

He wondered what it cost Kakashi to say these things now. Why was he returning to the ANBU? Sasuke hadn't paid much attention to his former teammates – in fact, he'd aggressively resisted any efforts made to update him on their status. But he sort of knew that Sakura was now working directly for Tsunade, and Naruto had passed his Chuunin exam and could take solo missions or join another team. Kakashi should be in charge of a new bunch of Genin by now. 

"Okay!" Kakashi clapped his hands together, making the three ANBU rookies start. "Let's start training before I die of old age."

He was talking in that casual drawl again, back to his usual self as if he'd lazily flicked a switch and put the cold killer who'd spoken previously back into his weapon holster. Oh yeah, Kakashi hadn't changed a damn.

"...Is that it? For the induction?" Neji asked, sounding a bit less self-assured than before.

"Yeah, that's about it." Kakashi scratched his head as if thinking about it. "I gave you your code names, I told you what we'll be doing for the next few days...did I forget anything?"

"Weren't you supposed to tell us about the rules we have to follow?"

"Rules?" Kakashi made a motion of tossing something over his shoulder. "Just use your common sense."

The set of Neji's shoulders spoke of perplexity as he muttered "Okay."

"Don't worry. If you actually break any serious rules, I'll fall on you like a ton of bricks," Kakashi added helpfully.

Sasuke felt a prickle of sympathy for Neji, who'd presumably never run headfirst into Kakashi-logic before. Kakashi was the headmaster of the school of hard knocks. He taught his charges by tossing them into the jaws of challenges that would make them stronger, sometimes rather painfully. Sasuke, a bit more used to that brand of logic, started considering the little he knew about the ANBU and deducing the rules he should follow from that. He was sure Kakashi would tell them anything really important they should know, when it was time for them to know it. The rest of it would be common sense. If Sasuke couldn't use that, he would be very little use to Kakashi as an operative.

"We don’t have much time today, but let's start with a little one-on-one," Kakashi continued blithely. "A quick introduction to each other's fighting styles. Hawk, Joker, you two start. Puppy and I will watch. Hawk, don't injure your team-mate."

"Hey! I'm the one who kicked his ass four years ago!"

"Okay, let me rephrase that. Joker, don't injure your team-mate. Hawk, don't do anything too serious to Joker's chakra points, we don't have the time for any lengthy hospital stays."

"Understood."

Naruto, still grumbling, took up a stance on the other side of the clearing to Neji. The latter held out one hand before him, fingers loose, knees slightly bent, and waited.

Sasuke stepped up to Kakashi's side, his mind on his own agenda. There was no way that he and Naruto could form anything like a stable team. That was self-evident. He wasn't going to bother to try to persuade Naruto of this, because Naruto would probably disagree out of principle - which would rather prove the point, without, however, getting them anywhere. But the bonehead would certainly listen to 'Kakashi-sensei'. Kakashi should be able to talk some sense into him. 

"Hah, this brings back memories," Naruto snickered, moving slowly to Neji's left in the clearing. "You still got that handy blind spot behind you, Ne-damn, I can't get used to these bloody names. Hawk?"

"Find out. Joker."

Sasuke hesitated, half turned towards Kakashi. It wasn't the words that caught his attention, it was the tone. For all it sounded like fighting talk, there was an undercurrent of familiarity and warmth here. Not quite friendship, yet somehow deeper as well, a mutual recognition. Had Naruto and Neji teamed up before today? 

"I won't attack you with my clones," Naruto declared. He was swaying back and forth on the balls of his feet now, and Sasuke felt he wasn't being as casual about this as he sounded. "If you can't use your Gentle Fist to the max, I'll tie one of my own hands behind my back too."

"Good," Neji said indifferently - yet still Sasuke had the feeling this was something of a game. "Your clones are as noisy as you are."

Naruto snickered savagely and his hand flashed.

Neji managed to actually look contemptuous without any facial expressions being visible as he dodged the three shuriken. He spun on one foot like a dancer, as if he already knew where Naruto's next attack would come from- Byakugan, Sasuke reminded himself. Naruto's strike made a whiffle noise as it brushed by Neji's shoulder. The follow-through blow did the same as Neji turned on himself once more, as if he had all the time in the world. Naruto was fast, but Neji made him look like he was flailing through molasses. 

Naruto fell back. "If you're gonna do nothing but dodge, this is going to get boring fast," he growled.

Neji didn't say anything. He merely took three steps back. 

Naruto shot at him, the forest loam plowing beneath his sandals as he picked up speed over the few feet separating them.

Neji leaned back under the blow, falling into a graceful back flip. One knee blocked Naruto's downward strike hammering into his belly- how had Naruto known Neji would move like that? The other leg caught Naruto in the crook of the arm. Neji used the leverage of his body flipping over to send Naruto tumbling into a tree.

Naruto caught himself feet-first against the trunk and he was back in the fray in a second, leg's scything towards Neji's as the latter was still getting his balance back. Neji dodged, but he was in the defensive now, and Naruto was there once more, in his face.

Sasuke had never seen Neji fight in person, but he knew the Hyuga techniques. Kabuto’s spy work had been very thorough, particularly where it concerned the cream of Konoha's rookie crop. While he was with Orochimaru, Sasuke had seen grainy videos of some of Neji’s fights, particularly the elimination trials for Neji’s Chuunin and Jounin exams. Sasuke had studied those videos carefully, because this young man with the curiously fluid and elegant fighting style might just end up being Orochimaru’s – and thus Sasuke’s - opponent one day.

Now Neji was a teammate, his abilities of even more immediate concern to Sasuke, but the latter had another ax to grind.

"Ka-" no, he had to use those stupid code names. But he was damned if he was going to call Kakashi 'Big Dog' until he was absolutely forced to. "...Sir?" 

"Hm?"

"Look, Joker over there shouldn't be in the ANBU. He probably applied just because he somehow heard I was joining. He still thinks we have this stupid rivalry thing going on. But I can't imagine why you people let him-"

"You shouldn't underestimate him," Kakashi said, his eyes on the fight.

Sasuke was silent for a long minute - in the clearing, Naruto had lost the advantage again and was trying to get out of Neji's range to recoup. He leaped back into a tree, tumbled over a large branch, landed in a crouch on the side of the tree-trunk, and propelled himself sideways, trying to catch that fluid body.

"Underestimate him?" Sasuke finally whispered, keeping his voice level with some effort. "You think I underestimate him?"

He turned fully towards Kakashi, his fists clenched at his side.

"A year ago, I saw him take down Orochimaru despite all the old snake's jutsus and power and knowledge. I saw his chakra burn like the sun. I saw him nearly die and then get up again and fight on until he'd pounded Orochimaru into the _dirt_ and you think I underestimate him?!"

The sounds of blows and breaking wood nearby covered the last few words that had risen in volume despite Sasuke’s efforts to keep his voice down.

Kakashi slowly turned his head to look at him.

"You should be happy he's on your side," the Jounin pointed out neutrally without saying whether he was talking about the events of a year ago or now.

"I saw him destroy one of the three Sannin. I saw him break Orochimaru's right arm in four separate places. He battled that bastard to a standstill. But he stopped short of killing him. He tried to bargain with the snake. He was going to let him live if Orochimaru promised he'd never bother Konoha again. Promised! Naruto's never killed anyone in his life, he has no idea how to. Orochimaru was a second away from destroying him, and Naruto was still trying to persuade him to surrender. Naruto has _no business being an ANBU._ "

Naruto and Neji were back in the clearing. There'd been no words exchanged, but they seemed to have fallen by common agreement into a match of short-range blow and counter-blow. Naruto was outclassed in that kind of fight against Neji, but as Neji's hands flickered through his defense, giving him some hard slaps and punches, Naruto laughed.

"That you know of."

Sasuke frowned in bewilderment, trying to make sense of Kakashi's answer. "...What?" 

"Somewhere in that long drivel about a young man you nearly killed four years ago and then haven't really spoken to since, was the remark that he'd never killed anybody. That you know of."

Sasuke stared at the cold metal profile.

"You mean he has-..." For some reason, Sasuke refused to believe that. Kakashi could lie without actually saying anything downright untruthful. " _Has_ he actually killed anybody? If he has, why would he have gone about bargaining with Oro-"

"Maybe you should ask him."

Kakashi's voice was its usual bored drawl, but there was a steel edge to it. Sasuke realized two things. One, Kakashi would not help Sasuke dissuade Naruto from doing this. And two, Kakashi hadn't forgotten on what terms they'd parted, or that Sasuke had nearly killed Naruto on his quest for power.

Sasuke turned back to the fight again, crossing his arms over his chest. Fine. He didn't require Kakashi's friendship, as long as they could work together. As for Naruto...

"Okay, give it a break," Kakashi shouted. 

The two duellists fell apart, panting. Sasuke knew the mask affected your breathing, he'd felt its impact during his run around the woods earlier. He was going to have to get used to it quickly.

"There's water in my backpack. Start learning the art of drinking without showing too much of your face," Kakashi announced with the sadistic cheeriness his ex-pupils were familiar with. "Puppy and I are going to take a turn now." 

Sasuke was getting very tired of 'Puppy' already. It wasn't just the name, it was the way Kakashi said it. He stalked over to one side of the clearing, and realized his path was going to cross Naruto's.

"Good luck," Naruto whispered as he passed. The words were an odd mix of honest and sarcastic, as if Naruto himself couldn't quite decide how he'd meant them. Sasuke ignored him.

The two metal dogs measured each other across the ten feet of space between them. Sasuke came up to Kakashi's chin now; he remembered a time he'd not made it past his chest. 

He remembered how he’d attacked Kakashi back then, eager to prove himself, to test himself. Kakashi had quite literally hammered him into the ground. It was to be expected. He'd been so very young.

The two circled each other slowly. Kakashi was weighing him, he thought.

"So...why did you get back into the ANBU?" Sasuke asked, watching his old mentor carefully.

"I have my reasons," Kakashi said blandly. 

"I can imagine."

"Really?"

Sasuke moved closer, his Sharingan flickering to life as he tracked every twitch of Kakashi's body, particularly his hands.

"They asked you to. They want you to observe me while I fight. They want you to copy and relay to them all the jutsus I learned with Orochimaru."

Kakashi wasn't making any move to attack, waiting for Sasuke to throw himself forward like a brash, arrogant kid.

"Am I right? Big Dog?" Sasuke asked, coming to a halt five feet away.

"You assume they tell me these things." He could almost hear the grin in Kakashi's voice as the latter shrugged widely, looking utterly harmless. "It does sound like a valid reason, don't you think?"

There was some noise of impatience off to the sideline, Naruto grumbling about starting already. 

"Did you learn some nice tricks with Orochimaru?" Kakashi asked, his voice disinterested.

"Many. He knew it kept me in line, and besides, he wanted me to be able to defend myself, and develop my chakra pathways to the maximum extent of my physiology before he took over my body. I've studied jutsus that Konoha has never even heard of. But the one thing I learned above all is not something you can copy with a Sharingan." 

"Oh?" He'd piqued Kakashi's interest, even as the Copy-nin moved a bit, leaving his flank temptingly open to an attack to lure Sasuke in. "And what was that?"

"Patience." 

The air between them had turned to razor wire as each Sharingan-user watched and waited for the other’s move, measuring every minute shift of stance, anticipating each strike, preparing each parry. Naruto had fallen abruptly silent, perhaps realizing that, contrary to appearances, the battle had in fact already begun.

"Sounds like he was a better educator than I ever was then," Kakashi said softly.

Before Sasuke could analyze the faint trace of emotion behind the words, his body was jerking into a parry.

The attack slammed into his crossed wrists, sending him sliding back a few inches over the forest floor. The bones of his arms felt like they were ringing like cymbals, but Sasuke was already reacting, years of arduous training coming to the fore. His arms, still crossed at the wrist, shot forward to capture and hold Kakashi’s fist, while his balance shifted for a kick-

He grabbed nothing but air. Kakashi was three feet away and well out of range. How the fuck did he do that?! Guess the old dog still has some tricks.

Sasuke lunged forward, his body still on automatic, ready to press his momentary advantage. Fingers blurring through seals-

He skidded to a stop as he realized Kakashi had one hand held out in a ‘Hold it’ gesture. His sandals dug into the soft ground of the clearing to stop before plowing right into his old teacher.

"What the-"

"Sorry, Puppy, time's up."

Sasuke glanced in the direction of Kakashi's nod of greeting.

There was a tall shape beneath a tree on one side of the clearing. A long dark overcoat was draped over ANBU armor; a white, faceless mask with slits for eyes, a dark bandana over his head.

Sasuke had never seen that moon-like mask before, but the way his gut clenched, he knew who it was, who it had to be.

"What does he want with me?!" Bile was rising to his throat. "I came here like I was ordered to-"

Kakashi's hand touched him lightly on the shoulder, making him start.

"He only wants to talk to you," Kakashi said, voice neutral. "Regulations."

The touch on his shoulder was so brief, Sasuke almost wondered if he'd imagined it. Kakashi was now a few paces away and talking to the other two.

"That's the induction thingie done. Clear out. Meet me here in two days, same place, same time. We'll do some serious training."

"Who's that?" Sasuke heard Naruto ask. 

"None of your business. Come on, move out."

"Shouldn't we wait for Sa- Puppy?"

"No. We don't move back into town as a group to start with, and you have to be careful to-..."

Kakashi's attempt to explain 'discreet' to Naruto faded as Sasuke walked toward the figure. Morino Ibiki turned and moved away from the clearing, and Sasuke followed.

They walked on until they reached a thicker part of the forest. Then Ibiki turned and lifted his pristine mask away from his ruined face, an incongruous contrast. Sasuke obeyed the unspoken order and took off his own mask as well.

Ibiki looked him over calmly, then nodded.

"How are you doing, Sasuke?"

"...Okay." 

Sasuke remembered being shackled to a chair in the middle of a complex pattern of symbols carved into the floor, a five-pole seal for a complex Genjutsu with one of Ibiki's masked men at each pole, and Ibiki himself standing over him, saying, "How are you doing, Sasuke? I need to ask you some more questions, I'm afraid."

"Did your cell leader give you the rules you have to follow?" Ibiki asked.

"Er..."

Ibiki's scarred face creased with amusement. "Of course he didn't, who am I kidding. You'll figure them out. Get him to tell you if you have any doubts, okay?"

"What is this about?" Sasuke asked, his throat dry. 

\- They'd stuck long acupuncture needles into his jaw and larynx to paralyze his vocal cords so that he wouldn’t damage them when he screamed. The memory was sudden and sharp as if he could still feel the pinpricks and Ibiki's oddly gentle fingers steadying his chin. That was all that remained of those sessions: flashes and the occasional nightmare. The exact memory of what he'd been through had been erased as soon as the Genjutsus that were testing his veracity and his motivations were done tearing at his mind. As Ibiki had explained, the interrogators had no interest in breaking Sasuke; they only needed to be sure of him. 

The fact that he was still alive was testimony enough that what they'd seen in his mind was convincing. He'd received a conditional pardon, an assigned place to live, and now a new job. 

Sasuke might not remember much about the Genjutsus they'd used on him, but his body could. He was standing at attention with his wrists crossed behind his back so that Ibiki couldn’t see that his hands were shaking slightly. 

Ibiki had asked him, after the last session, if Sasuke would resent the interrogator for all this. He'd asked the question as if this was a regrettable by-product of his job and one that didn't really bother him all that much.

Sasuke had said no. It had been his choice to join Orochimaru. His choice to betray his friends and Konoha. Ibiki was doing his job, making sure Sasuke meant to stay this time. Besides, it was a good preparation for facing Itachi.

Ibiki had looked mildly perturbed at that. But it was hard to say if that was what he truly felt, or if it was just one more tool to dig the truth out of Sasuke's mind.

"We need to discuss the terms of your parole," Ibiki said, bringing Sasuke back to the present.

Sasuke nodded once, indicating he was listening.

Ibiki did him the favor of not mucking around or wrapping his terms in needless fluff and verbiage.

"The only time you are allowed to leave the village is with your team or to meet your team. Even on a mission, you're not to go anywhere without one of your teammates, except under Kakashi's direct and express order. If you get separated from your team, or once you've finished the solo task your leader assigned to you, you are to make it back to Kakashi or to Konoha without any delay. I repeat: without any delay."

"Even if that compromises the team's overall mission?" Sasuke's voice was completely neutral.

"You are in a special position in the ANBU. Let us say that, because of this requirement, yours is more a support role. The others will be in charge of finishing the mission if there's a problem. You are in charge of convincing me that you're not a loose cannon anymore."

"For how long?" Sasuke asked tightly.

"For as long as I say so."

Wonderful.

"Your life is about to get very busy. We're hoping that Orange squad is going to shape up into one of our main strike teams. You will be either training or on all sorts of missions. However busy you are, you will report to Kakashi, Shizune or myself every twenty-four hours. Even on a mission. Especially on a mission. Kakashi knows this too. He'll make sure you have the opportunity to get back to him to check in. Do not be late."

Ibiki didn't add an Or Else. He didn't need to.

"You are to tell Kakashi or myself everything that's going on in your life. I mean absolutely everything. If Kakashi asks you what you had for breakfast, you better have that menu ready. You will be under surveillance. Don't let us catch you telling a lie."

"I very much doubt my life outside missions will be that interesting, but if you want to waste the resources, sure," Sasuke said with an indifferent shrug.

"Itachi."

Sasuke stared at a clump of moss hanging from a tree over Ibiki's shoulder.

"If you hear anything about him, or spot his trail in any way, you are not to go after him. You are to break off everything you are doing and return to Kakashi or Konoha, whichever is closest, and raise the alarm."

Sasuke could feel Ibiki's gaze on him while he stared straight ahead.

"I can't threaten you on this, Sasuke. But I don't need to. Do I?"

Slowly, Sasuke shook his head. It was harder than he thought it would be. But the steel in his soul felt tempered by the effort. He was the arrow; he existed only on his path between two points. Whatever the means. Whatever the means...

"Good. Do you have any questions?"

Sasuke shook his head again.

"Come and find me if you do. Or Kakashi."

Ibiki turned and started to head back the way they’d come.

"Sir?"

Sasuke sorted the words out in his head as Ibiki glanced back at him.

"Uzumaki Naruto. I don't think we should be on the same team. There's bad blood between us. We'll be at each other's throats constantly. Since you want Kakashi to watch over me, you should move Naruto to another squad." One that wasn't going to be the main strike team of the village. If Naruto were killed on some random mission, Itachi would never come near Konoha again.

"Ah." Ibiki faced him, hands in his pockets, looking at him as if he could see right through Sasuke. "Maybe we have a problem then. It's true that I want you and Kakashi on the same team. But it is imperative that Naruto be on the same team as Kakashi as well."

"Why?" Sasuke asked sharply. 

"Classified."

Damn it...

"There are only two ways you will not be on Uzumaki's team: either you quit the ANBU, or he does. As for bad blood...I'm puzzled," Ibiki continued with that half-smile of his carved onto his scarred face. "Where would that bad blood be? In the way Naruto looked for you for three years and went through half of Akatsuki and Sound to get you?”

Sasuke drew a breath to elaborate on stubborn boneheads who couldn’t let a thing go-

“Or was this ‘bad blood’ manifest when you killed Orochimaru to save Uzumaki's life?" Ibiki continued.

Behind Sasuke's back, his right fist clenched hard enough for his nails to score his skin through the glove.

“That means nothing. It was a dumb reflex,” he stated harshly. “It was!” he added, though Ibiki hadn’t said anything. “It was two months before Orochimaru was going to do the body transfer, I had no free will left by that time. He wasn’t going to take a chance I’d run for it. When he gathered up his last resources to take down the idiot who was trying to spare his life, his control slipped minutely and my body reacted on its own, striking at the source of the jutsu that'd been restraining me.”

“A reflex.”

“I’m sure I’ve told you this before in circumstances under which I couldn’t lie,” Sasuke pointed out coldly.

“A reflex that put your fist right through his chest.”

“Yes.”

“A reflex that saved your life as well as Uzumaki’s, then, because it certainly tipped the Hokage's decision in your favor. Maybe you should cultivate those reflexes. I gave you your parole conditions and your options. Your choice.”

Then Ibiki was gone.

Sasuke stared for a long time at the trees and the sunshine filtering down through the leaves. He drew his right hand from behind his back and unclenched the fingers.

"Dumb reflex," he muttered.


	3. Masks

Orochimaru rubbed his hands slowly. It seemed to be a habit. The Sannin stroked his fingers together as if the feel of them gave him pleasure, the gesture producing a papery sound. His hands had been tanned and rough at first; two days after the body transfer they were still rough, dry, but much paler, as if something was leaching the light of past sunshine from his skin.

Orochimaru caught Sasuke’s look at the gesture and smiled. He’d put on a henge again, to cover the alien face with another one that was considerably more chilling and familiar. The smile was the same as the one Sasuke remembered; cold as a snake’s, uncaring, infinitely superior as if he’d seen the weakness in the universe and knew just how to exploit it. 

“Enjoy your body, Sasuke.”

Sasuke was silent, trying to figure out just how the hell he was supposed to take that remark.

“It can be taken away from you so easily. One limb at a time.” Orochimaru rubbed his hands again, then crossed his arms and looked at his new subordinate.

“Isn’t that what you’ll be doing to me?” Sasuke suddenly asked. His voice felt rusty; he hadn’t used it in two days. When he’d arrived in Sound, his throat had still been raw from shouting at Naruto. Kabuto had given him a medical check-up on arrival to verify the extent of the cursed seal’s effects, and then Sasuke had been left alone until now and been glad of it. 

“You will be my next container, yes.” 

Sasuke had told himself he was prepared for this moment. He was wrong. Admittedly, he had not expected Orochimaru to come out and confess outright that he was going to use Sasuke’s body for his own purposes.

“Does this frighten you?” Orochimaru asked with reptile incuriosity.

Sasuke doubted anyone could look forward with anticipation to becoming an empty shell for another's use. Anyone sane, anyway.

“Why should I let you?” he asked, knowing the challenge could mean his death sentence. Sasuke had expected this 'conversation', but not this soon. In the back of his mind, something dark was screaming No, I can’t die, I can’t die yet, I need to kill him first!

“You’ll let me.”

Sasuke just snorted crudely.

“Don’t be disrespectful, Sasuke-kun,” Kabuto chided from where he was working in one corner of the lab. “Let Orochimaru-sama explain.”

Orochimaru continued talking as if Sasuke had not reacted, as if his lieutenant hadn’t said a word. He’d not looked away from Sasuke since he’d stopped rubbing his hands.

“Do you know where Itachi gets his power, Sasuke?” He answered his own question without a pause. “It comes from sacrificing others.”

“I know,” Sasuke forced out. “He told me.”

“Of course he did,” Orochimaru murmured, letting that cryptic remark hang in the air. 

“I’ll defeat him. My own way.”

“Yes. You will. Because your power is greater.”

Sasuke gave the Sannin a look of outright suspicion.

“Your power does not come from sacrificing others, but from sacrificing yourself. That means that while Itachi has two aims – power and self-preservation – you have only one. Revenge. Do you see?”

Sasuke kept an air of cynical disinterest as he wondered what Orochimaru was trying to get at.

“You do not see. But you will. You will learn what real power is, Sasuke-kun. And you will realize that, alone, you could never defeat a psychotic like your brother. You will willingly offer yourself on my altar, because that is your power, and because that will insure your revenge. You will become one with me. You will still be a part of me, conscious. You will defeat him this way. You will feel his beating heart flutter and stop in our fist when we close our fingers around it, and it will be your face he sees as he dies.” 

Kabuto, the lab with the rather disturbing corpse cut up on a slab, the bottles and chemicals, all had faded. He’s trying to use a Genjutsu on me, Sasuke thought as Orochimaru’s eyes seemed to take up his whole field of vision, but a part of him, a part that had been born from his brother’s madness, told him this was not the case. This was what real power felt like, but Sasuke did not understand it. Not yet. He blinked and tried to fish words out of the darkness in his mind.

“I’ll still be...a part of you?” he asked, voice reduced to a hoarse whisper.

Orochimaru still hadn’t moved, hadn’t twitched after he’d stopped that soft hand-rubbing motion. Sasuke had expected the man to gloat over the stupid Genin who’d come to him of his own volition. Or leash Sasuke with threats to prevent escape. Or promise the world and all the power he wanted just to keep him here. But Orochimaru was looking at him as if Sasuke was merely a step in a long plan that stretched past ten of his lifetimes. 

“Yes, you will retain a small part of your individual consciousness,” the Sannin answered. “That is one reason it takes me three years between body transfers, besides the energy loss and jutsu preparation. I live with the soul of those who've given themselves to me. They are a lesser part of me. It takes time for my new host and I to find a balance within my psyche.”

“You don't mind?” Sasuke found himself asking. He had a hard enough time living in his own head by himself.

Orochimaru permitted himself a wider smile. “It's better than dying.”

“I want to learn how to fight him myself. I want more power,” Sasuke whispered, but his wants seemed small and childish all of a sudden.

“I'll give it to you.”

“Why?” Sasuke asked sharply. “If I have the strength to kill him, what leverage will you have over me?”

“You'll never have the strength to kill him by yourself. You lack the fundamental flaw in your mind. But we can kill him. We will be the steel that cuts him down, tempered between two metals. You’ll give me your body voluntarily, Sasuke-kun. It's not like you want it after all,” Orochimaru added with the smiling cruelty that meant he knew Sasuke couldn't deny it.

Sasuke scowled, trying to think. Then he realized he didn’t have to. The path was in front of him, he could see it clearly, and he could either take it and kill his brother or-...there was no ‘or’. 

“Yes. I think you are starting to understand,” Orochimaru murmured. “Sasuke-kun, you-...Sasuke?!”

Orochimaru stared down at the fist punched through his chest, the edge of the ugly wound crackling with wisps of a half-baked chakra discharge. Sasuke could feel flesh and blood pulsing around his fingers. The air stank of copper, ozone and burnt meat. 

Blood poured from the Sannin’s mouth, but his eyes were calm and distant as they lifted to Sasuke’s. They were not Orochimaru’s eyes.

“You failed...little brother.”

Sasuke woke with his fingers twisted in sheets instead of his mentor’s internal organs. He unclenched them and swallowed the bile in his throat.

He’d slept four hours, he estimated. It was around five in the evening. He rested and ate when he could, when he needed to, regardless of day or night; a habit picked up in Sound and not relinquished this past year. Since the ANBU was hardly going to be a nine-to-five job, he might as well keep his routine or lack thereof. Sasuke rubbed his hair, feeling it stick out worse than usual. He sat up, swung his feet to the lino and stared at the dingy apartment, not so different from his small sober room in Sound.

I haven’t failed, he thought, sudden and savage. I will kill you. I will not fail again.

But it would take time. Sasuke gathered his patience around him like armor and went to see what was in the fridge.

He wasn’t hungry after seeing its contents, so he went to practice. His room was in an old building with an abandoned shop out front and six miserable apartments lurking behind it. Half of them were deserted, the other half inhabited by old civilians who wouldn’t know him from the First Hokage. Sasuke didn’t care about the paltry accommodations. He'd spent his first two months back in Konoha in a high security cell which had been considerably gloomier. After that had been the frantic months helping the Konoha ANBU track down the remaining Sound ninja in their various hideouts...This apartment was the first place he'd stayed in for more than three consecutive weeks. What he particularly liked about it was the store’s warehouse, a large shack of corrugated metal next to the building, where he could practice and practice and practice and avoid going insane.

He walked through the yard full of garbage cans, haunted at night by feral cats. His fingers worked out of old habit, picking the locks on the warehouse. He locked the door behind him again and went to shake the nightmare out of his system, feet slewing through debris and abandoned old boxes. 

He remembered days of training in Sound, improving his strength and chakra control. Eating, sleeping, talking had become meaningless, annoying distractions he got out of the way as quickly as possible. Whether he was training to defeat his brother, or training his body so that he and Orochimaru could destroy his brother together, became a meaningless distinction. He practiced until his chakra paths were burned raw, until he was weak and dizzy, until he felt as if he was going to die, and then he practiced some more, or until Kabuto put his foot down and forced him to get some rest. Sasuke thought at some point that Orochimaru would tell him to slow down too; he might be causing long-term damage to their future body. But Orochimaru just looked at him with a gaze full of understanding and greed, and that only egged Sasuke on. That gaze seemed to be saying, go, do what you need to. Here, there are no well-meaning friends to hold you back, no mundane duties to distract you. There are no limits here. 

The warehouse was empty. It smelled of dust, cat piss and the burnt tin smell of chakra discharges. Nothing stirred apart from a big fly hitting the translucent sheet plastic over one window with monotonous regularity. Sasuke’s violence dispensed itself into the still air. Kabuto wasn’t in the corner, offering unwanted advice that was sometime quite appropriate, not that Sasuke had ever acknowledged it. Orochimaru wasn’t watching from the mezzanine, arms cross and face unreadable, offering absolutely nothing until Sasuke came to him and asked. 

He’d have continued training for the rest of the night, but he had to go see Kakashi for his parole check-in. Or he could go talk to Ibiki or Shizune...No, if he did that, Kakashi would realize Sasuke had avoided him, and he’d think- well, Sasuke didn’t care what Kakashi thought of him, but once he realized that a part of him didn’t want to see the Jounin alone, he was damned if he was going to wait another minute before doing just that. Sasuke despised taking the easy way out. It lead to weakness.

He needed to renew his acquaintance with Kakashi anyway. The man could teach him much. Orochimaru had kept a close eye on Akatsuki, the only group he considered a real threat to him, and Sasuke had read the reports from his mentor's spies. So he knew that Kakashi had beaten one of them and reached some new level in using the Sharingan, a level beyond Sasuke's mastery, though presumably not beyond Itachi...No, there was no way Kakashi could reach those heights, but what he had, Sasuke wanted. It would probably take awhile to persuade Kakashi to teach Sasuke whatever secrets he had. Maybe he would refuse altogether, in which case Sasuke was going to get some practice spying and using the Sharingan for jutsu analysis during the numerous fights they were bound to have as fellow ANBU. The steel at Sasuke's core could not stop counting the advantages of being under Kakashi's orders once more.

Too bad he came packaged with Naruto.

Why the hell did Kakashi and Naruto have to be in the same group? As former team-mates, Sasuke could understand why they'd _want_ to be, but presumably that sort of sentimental reason didn't hold sway when it came to forming ANBU squads. So why-...

That was when the idea came to him. It went from notion to full-blown plan in an instant. It might rid Sasuke of a potential source of problems. At the least, he might be able to winkle out the reason behind this Kakashi-Naruto hook-up. And since meeting Naruto face-to-face was something Sasuke wanted to do even less than he wanted to talk to Kakashi, he was, naturally, going to do it first.

He turned around, walked back a few streets and headed towards a neighborhood he'd not set foot in for years. It was only when he stopped in front of the courtyard door that it occurred to him that Naruto might have moved out ages ago. But inside the entrance, the wooden tag hanging from its peg proclaimed to the world that Uzumaki Naruto was still living here and in residence at the moment. Or maybe it just proclaimed that Naruto had forgotten to take down his 'at home' sign, again. 

A thousand memories flooded back as Sasuke stood there, in the entrance smelling of stir-fry and mildew, staring at a little wooden tag hanging slightly askew from its peg. He welcomed them and then he crushed them, like a man purging a poison. He'd been right to do this. Time to bury this once and for all. And if he could strong-arm Uzumaki out of his ANBU team as well, all the better.

Sasuke made his way up the stairs to the door he'd banged on a few times in a previous life. It had acquired a new lick of paint and a wooden plaque with Naruto's name on it. Sasuke knocked without the slightest hesitation.

From another room within the apartment, he heard a familiar loud voice barely muffled by distance and a couple of doors: "Come in, man!"

Finally Sasuke did pause. His mind had been coldly calculating how this meeting was going to go, from worst to best case scenario, but he'd never imagined Naruto would be so casual about- no, the idiot must think he was somebody else. Sasuke had been suppressing his chakra automatically, something he'd gotten well used to in Sound as it allowed a proper Shinobi to overhear a lot of interesting conversations. 

He opened the unlocked door and stepped in silently. The room had changed, acquiring new furniture of better quality and a weapon's rack. Sasuke gravitated that way automatically, but there was nothing stellar. A sword, the usual assortment of throwing weapons, a short staff and an umbrella. 

The table in the middle of the room was bigger and had several chairs around it now. The kitchenette in one corner had a new fridge. There was a dirty wok on the two-burner stove top, and dirty dishes in the sink. There were books and a few clothes here and there, in stacks that suggested this was their natural order rather than a mess that had simply happened. 

The ridiculous motivational posters on the walls had been replaced by maps and jutsu scrolls and a chart of deployment tactics. Sasuke had analyzed the jutsus in a glance as he came in - nothing special - but now he took in the entire wall, the better-quality furniture, the weapons rack. It was as if someone had tapped him on the shoulder and reminded him that it had been four years, and Naruto had changed and grown and matured. A bit. Though not that much; next to a tidy stack of orange cloth, black tops and fishnet, the ANBU chest, a clone of the one stashed in Sasuke's closet, was standing askew and wide open for all to see. Kakashi hadn't given them any regulations regarding this, but only an idiot would fail to realize there'd be one against letting their ANBU equipment lying around.

"You're early!" came Naruto's voice from the bathroom. "Be with you in a minute."

So Naruto was waiting for somebody. And the somebody who might have shown up and walked right in could have been Itachi for all that idiot had taken precautions. Sasuke took down a few more notches from his estimate of Naruto's maturation. This was careless. With a silent sneer of disdain, Sasuke nudged the open ANBU chest with his foot. The sword that had been dropped into it slid sideways, taking a corner of black cloth with it, and something white and slashed with orange stared up at Sasuke from the bottom of the box.

There was a mumbling and a clunk from the bathroom. It sounded miles away.

Finally Sasuke moved, almost against his own volition. He bent down and picked up the mask with the very tips of his fingers.

As he straightened, the silence behind him grew fangs.

Naruto had his ANBU uniform hanging from one arm. Sasuke noted this in the far back of his mind, in a small, muddled area the steel hadn't reached yet. It had deduced that this was why Naruto had left the ANBU chest open. It was also curious to know where Naruto had gone with the uniform, if he'd had a meeting or had simply been getting used to the equipment, and who was Naruto waiting for anyway?

The blue eyes were like flint, the face hard and hurt at the same time. Naruto had changed in the last year, and yet he'd not changed at all since he was twelve. He was bare to the waist, dressed in threadbare cotton pants. Sasuke's eyes dwelled on the place he'd punched a hole through Naruto's chest nearly four years ago, but there wasn't the slightest trace of a scar, there or anywhere that Sasuke could see. How was that possible? Sasuke's skin had picked up a number of 'lessons', which was what Kabuto called them when he stitched his cantankerous patient up in the infirmary. That will teach you to dodge, Sasuke-kun. That will teach you to be careful of this type of jutsu, Sasuke-kun. And what have we learned about summonings and their control, Sasuke-kun?

The face - familiar, yet that of a man Sasuke didn’t know, the chest with a lot more muscles than Sasuke remembered, the look in his eyes and the fact he'd gotten on Sasuke's six so easily - Sasuke was stupidly off-balance. He'd come here so sure of himself, so in control of all the possible ways this could go, and now he'd lost all his composure before Naruto had even opened his mouth. The clever verbal attack he'd prepared to talk Naruto out of the ANBU had evaporated, and he was left standing there with his face guarded, his mind a whirl of distraction and the mask weighing down in his fingers as if it was made of pure lead.

I knew it was a mistake to team up with this guy, Sasuke thought, digging up a pale wisp of bitter vindication from the wreckage.

Several years, two bitter battles and a fair amount of blood leaked into the long minute that followed. 

Naruto dropped the black clothes in a heap on the floor and put his hands on his hips. He opened his mouth, gave one of those over-the-top scowls of his and closed it again. Sasuke knew that Naruto had even less control over this unexpected confrontation than he did, yet that thought brought him no consolation; it meant that this moment could go in any direction and end up anywhere. 

Then Naruto made a noise that almost sounded like a growl. He'd spotted what Sasuke was holding.

In a savage movement that shook off the past, Naruto marched over to the intruder, snagged the mask from Sasuke's hand and slapped the face of the Fox over his own.

"Suits me! Right?!"

Sasuke dusted off his fingers as if they were contaminated. Naruto was too close. He still had no notion of what a Shinobi's personal space was. 

Sasuke didn't answer the challenge. He didn't say anything. His list of persuasive and dissuasive reasons was coming back to him, but he knew now that nothing he could say would ever talk Naruto out of the ANBU. A guy who'd received that mask and decided to stay on anyway would not leave because of anything Sasuke could say. 

So he turned and headed towards the door.

"H-hey!" 

Naruto had removed the mask and was staring at him with eyes like saucers.

"What- where you going?"

"I have somewhere I need to be. In the next ten minutes," Sasuke said, making a show of glancing at the evening falling fast outside.

"But-...what are you doing here?"

"I was in the neighbourhood."

Naruto's face was a picture of confusion and hesitation and something too much like hope for Sasuke's liking. "You just decided to drop by? Well-"

"I came to see you."

Naruto blinked and looked startled by the contrast between the words and the tone of steely indifference.

Sasuke turned to face him and buried the rest.

"It's been so long, I've missed you, you've grown so much, I'm so sorry for everything, we have so much to talk about, I hope we can be friends again."

Naruto's mouth was hanging open in shock, hurt and gathering anger. The marks on his cheeks were getting more pronounced, not a good sign. Sasuke put his hand on the doorknob.

"You- You-...Son of a bitch. You just-...you just haven't changed a fucking inch, have you."

I've changed more than you can ever comprehend, Uzumaki. Before, I was a weak boy. Now I am a weapon.

"So what the hell are you doing here?!" From the sound behind him, Sasuke deduced that Naruto was waving wildly at his apartment, at the neighbourhood, at Konoha. "Apart from being a- being a- a-"

"We have a history," Sasuke said, addressing the door in a voice that was back to stern professionalism. "It's unfortunate they put us on the same team, but we're going to have to work together. This does not imply anything more. Get that through your head or get out of the squad." 

"Is that what you came here to say? Stay out of my way?"

"No," Sasuke answered with a final glance back. "We won't have the luxury of staying out of each other's way. Just don't let the past cloud your judgement. You'll get us both killed."

Naruto's lips twitched upward into an almost animalistic snarl. "Fine by me, if you stop jerking around. Wasn't as if teaming up with you was my idea anyway."

Sasuke's hand hesitated minutely on the doorknob. That comment surprised him. Naruto hadn't joined Sasuke's squad deliberately? The blue eyes wouldn't meet his gaze. Naruto made a show of turning around with an angry snort. Sasuke didn't know if his teammate had lied about that, exaggerated, meant something else, or truly meant it and simply regretted saying it out loud. At one time, Sasuke would have been able to tell.

The door closed behind Sasuke with a click. One second later came the sound of a foot hitting a chest and sending it crashing through a pile of books. 

 

\---

 

The door opened and Kakashi poked his head out.

"I'm not AWOL," Sasuke bit out.

"Good to know," Kakashi said genially. Then he closed the door.

Sasuke's fist connected with it hard enough to shake it in its frame, yet it didn't budge open an inch with Kakashi's hand keeping it in place.

Kakashi swung his door open again with the same mild look one would expect had Sasuke merely knocked. "Yes?"

"Did you choose our masks?" 

Sasuke knew he should stop this conversation, which would afford him nothing. But the question had been asked.

"Yes," Kakashi answered as if Sasuke had inquired politely instead of throwing that question in his teeth.

Yes...? A small part of Sasuke had not expected Kakashi to have had a part in that.

"Still angry about the Puppy?" Kakashi asked him as if he couldn’t imagine why.

Sasuke stared at him. No, Kakashi wouldn’t do that to his one-time pupil - and if he thought the Puppy bullshit was his recruits' biggest problem...

"What mask did you give Naruto?" he asked. It was just a question now, and not anywhere as assured as before.

Kakashi examined him. Then he opened his door wider and disappeared from Sasuke's line of sight. Sasuke hesitated, but he'd gone too far now. He accepted the unspoken invitation and followed Kakashi in.

Kakashi's place was exactly the same as before, down to the plant growing in a pot near the window and which seemed to have barely picked up one extra leaf in the four years since Sasuke had last seen it. It was disconcerting. 

There was tea brewing on the table, along with a couple of sandwiches. He'd apparently interrupted Kakashi's dinner. There was a book open near the single place setting. It was thick, bound in leather, and not the garbage Kakashi usually read, but Sasuke couldn't see what it was from where he was standing near the door.

Sasuke looked around. He'd been here before, when he was twelve. He'd examined the place, labelled it 'sensei's apartment' and thought no more about it. The past four years had given him new vision. The plant, the bold markings on the futon's cover, the cheerful tea-set decorated with blue and green fish, the orange books lined up tidily in a bookshelf, the odds and ends and knickknacks brought back from a dozen of different countries...Sasuke realized something he hadn't seen four years ago. These were all a part of Kakashi and yet they were all a form of front as well, just like the mask.

There were two framed photographs on the window sill. Sasuke's gaze passed over his own younger face. Those two slices of the past might be the only thing that was completely authentic about this room. 

Kakashi had been pottering around the attached kitchen. He had a second cup in his hand when he turned around, and a plate.

"I gave Naruto a bear mask," he said. "Cookie?"

"They gave him a fox." Thanks to Orochimaru, Sasuke knew what that meant. Learning that the strength he'd struggled against hadn't been that loser Naruto but the strength of the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon should have made Sasuke feel better about his progress, yet it hadn't.

Kakashi registered no surprise at the news. In fact the slight shrug he gave at that point might have decreased the total amount of available surprise on the planet by some significant amount. "I didn't think Konoha had any."

"It looked old," Sasuke said, suddenly remembering the ivory tint of the white metal, different than his own mask. "The orange stripes on it had been painted on recently, though. Not very well." They'd matched the slashes on Naruto's cheeks. Nice touch, Sasuke thought acidly. 

"Must have been one from before Kyuubi. They were all retired from circulation after the attack. That will narrow it down a little," Kakashi said, still giving the impression he didn't really care all that much (but some quartermaster was surely about to find out otherwise). "How did Naruto take it?"

Like Naruto always takes it, Sasuke thought; with the stupidest solution possible to avoid wearing the mask, and determination to prove that he can do the job and defend the village, whatever some bastard in charge of Supplies thinks of him. Sasuke didn't say it, though, he just shrugged.

There was a short moment of silence. Kakashi sat down and leaned back in his chair with his hands in his pockets and his eye on the ceiling as if it held something marginally interesting. Maybe he was going through potential suspects in his head. He seemed to be ignoring Sasuke, but there was a plate of cookies and an extra cup of tea on the table. They still had some history between them as well, but unlike Naruto, Kakashi could compartmentalize and not let that impact on his effectiveness, his ability to fight with Sasuke, or this moment of truce where it almost felt as if they were sharing a common goal, both protecting the same person.

Sasuke stirred. "I have to go," he muttered.

Kakashi waved vaguely in his direction without glancing at him. Sasuke left. He needed Kakashi, but he could not afford to get too close to him; not yet. Because he wasn't sure he would be able to get close to him without falling into the trap of getting involved too deeply once more. The steel in his soul wasn't strong enough yet. 

He trudged down the street, feeling annoyed for no reason he could discern, until a flicker of aura caught his attention. He glanced up just in time to see a blur disappear off to his right. That had felt like Hyuuga Neji. 

Sasuke tried not to, but he couldn’t help noticing that if Neji kept straight on his present heading, he'd end up near Naruto's apartment. 

_Come in, man! You're early!_

Sasuke shook his head and headed on back to his current residence.

 

\---

 

Masked, armed and ready, Sasuke showed up at the meeting place ten minutes early, as he had two days ago. Just like last time, Hyuuga Neji was already there. He didn't glance up or say anything when Sasuke landed nearby. 

Their other two ANBU teammates were late once more, though not quite as much. Kakashi arrived barely ten minutes after the meeting should have started. He lifted his hand in a salute, but a crash of branches interrupted him and announced the arrival of the last member of the cell, landing square in the middle of the clearing the next moment.

"Hey hey! I have a new mask!" Naruto said even as he straightened up.

He did. Kakashi must have been by Supplies. It wasn't a bear mask as originally planned; it had the square-ish muzzle shape and highly stylized lines of a lion. Naruto's blonde hair spilled around it like a mane, appropriately enough. Sasuke glanced briefly at Kakashi with an odd stirring of gratitude for the man before the steel in his soul suppressed it savagely. This was still one big, huge mistake...

"Now you have to call me Lion!" Naruto announced.

"Move along, Joker," Kakashi said, turning towards the woods and striding off, hands in his pockets.

"Come on, Joker." Neji walked past Naruto as the latter drew in a breath of protest.

"Hey!"

Sasuke finally looked back at his teammate, the young man who - it appeared inevitable - would be watching his back and fighting at his side. 

"You coming...Joker?"

Behind the mask, the blue eyes blinked. Sasuke turned away. A minute later, footsteps trudged after him.

"You guys suck," Naruto muttered. But he didn't sound all that put out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's all she wrote, when it comes to Naruto. I have it all archived now. Back to One Piece and GW!


End file.
